Overwatch: The Best Guide To Make You a GM Hanzo [2020 UPDATE]

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In this guide, I will show you how Top 100 Overwatch boosters play Hanzo.
Following this strategy guide, our clients and readers have improved their Skill Rating by at least 300 SR and many even reached Grandmaster.
Hanzo is a high skill-cap hero, but don’t let that intimidate you away from playing him because with enough practice you can become a very good player with the help of his extremely versatile ability kit.
Without further ado, let’s dive right in.

About Hanzo

Overwatch features many projectile heroes, however, in my opinion Hanzo is the best one when you master him. Because Hanzo has consistent burst damage and his ability to turn fights around even if the teamfight is about to be lost.
Hanzo has a very small head compared to other heroes making him very hard to kill if the enemy team is playing Widowmaker or any other hitscan hero.

Hanzo Abilities

Storm Bow

Hold to charge and then release the arrow in order to fire the arrow further. Hanzo’s fully charged primary arrow deals 125 damage upon impact and twice the damage if it’s a headshot.
My favorite strategy to using the primary ability is to aim at the enemy left shoulder and do a subtle flick to the head for a clean kill because the enemy is always moving and you have to master the skill of flicking your mouse and understanding your enemies movements so you can hit them.
This may seem not seem intuitive but try not to aim. Practice getting a good flick and you will hit many more targets when not overthinking.

Storm Bow Tips

Your primary arrow will do double the damage if you land a headshot so you should always go for headshot kills unless you know that the enemy is low hp and can be killed with a bodyshot.

Your number one goal when playing Hanzo is being able to predict your enemies movement so you know where and when to release your arrow and you can do that by going into custom lobbies and practise against bots so you don’t feel pressured while practicing.

A lot of Hanzo players struggle when it comes to a one versus one against Tracer. Keep in mind that tracer only has 150 HP and a fully charged arrow does 250 damage when you land a headshot. Do not waste time fully charging your primary arrow when fighting a Tracer because you only need to charge your arrow to 50%-70% to one shot a tracer with headshot. And if she is close you can go for a bodyshot and a quick melee to finish her off.

Your primary arrow is very good for area denial as it pressures the enemy team into avoiding wherever you are shooting because of the one shot capability.

When dueling a Widowmaker make sure you’re not impatient or it could cost you an instant death. What you want to do is always wait for Widowmaker to jump to either side because it’s much easier to predict where she is gonna be standing especially if she is far away from you, because your arrow is a projectile and can have up to 1 second delay before you hit your target.

Hanzo’s arrow does not have fall off damage but your accuracy does get worse the further away you shoot so you want to aim a bit higher if the enemy is located far away from you. This needs a lot of practise to get it down right.

Sonic Arrow

When you activate this ability your first arrow that you shoot will impact a solid surface or an enemy and it reveal the location of nearby enemies for a brief period of time (similar to Widowmaker’s infrasight).
You can stick an enemy or any mobile structure with it, meaning that they will carry an arrow with them, acting like a mobile visibility point.

Sonic Arrow Tips

Sonic Arrow is a very strong ability if used right because it allows you and your teammates to have the upper-hand and know exactly where the enemy team is, and that gives you the chance to pre-fire an enemy before he peaks a corner for a instant kill.

Remember that the Sonic Arrow is pretty silent compared to his other arrows and has a greater arc when you compare it to his other arrows.

Try not to waste this arrow before a fight has started because it has a limited expiration time. It’s good to use the Sonic arrow on choke points where your team is focusing the damage output on, as it allows your team to know exactly where to shoot in case a enemy tries to slip through the cracks and go on point.

If your team is not communicating then this ability is useful to show your team where the enemy flankers are playing.

A very important part of using this arrow is actually hitting the tanks with it so that when they move the sonic arrow will be stuck to them and you’ll be able to see where the whole enemy team is located. And if you’re able to do this the whole game it will be a huge advantage for your team and will help you win teamfights and most likely win you the game.

Try using the Sonic Arrow on areas where your supports are standing in order for you to reveal and lurking flankers that want to kill your squishy supports.

Remember that heroes like Tracer or Reaper can remove the arrow from them with Recall or Wraith Form.

Storm Arrows

When you activate the Storm Arrows, you will become engulfed in wind and have a limited time to shoot 6 arrows that deal 70 damage each. That is 350 damage in just 2 seconds. Hanzo does not suffer from limited mobility during the usage.

Storm Arrow Tips

This is one of the best burst damage abilities in the game and with the help of a Mercy damage boost or a nanoboost from Ana, you can deal 1.5x or 2x that damage. So try to play with a Mercy player to be more effective. Not only will Mercy healing keep you alive it will let you deal more damage overtime.

This ability is not the greatest against a good Tracer because you need to body shot her 3 times and a headshot is only 140 damage while she has 150 HP. When you’re fighting a flanker try to vary your fire rate to make it unpredictable because Tracer has 3 blinks and will usually blink when she thinks you’re about to shoot. You will need to stop for half a second while dueling her so that you can throw her off.

Hanzo is very good at breaking the enemy barriers, so whenever you’re fighting on a chokepoint do not waste time doing nothing, always shoot at barriers and use the Storm Arrow to destroy the enemy shields.

Storm arrow is best used when you wall climb to the high ground and is being spammed on the enemy team as it limits their movement, and you create space for your team to push the enemy while they are backing off.

Lunge and Wallclimb

Hanzo has the ability to climb any flat surface by pressing the jump button and holding it in. If you are being chased by an enemy you can even double jump (Lunge) while climbing to any other direction to mislead the enemy.
You can charge your arrow before you proceed to climb up a wall and proceed to release the fully charged arrow at any time in case an enemy is waiting for you upstairs.

Lunge and Wallclimb Tips

When playing Hanzo you should always focus on claiming high ground to avoid any flankers of being able to contest you.

Highground makes shooting easier, and enemies shooting you have a harder time hitting. You can also avoid enemy frontal barriers such as the one from Reinhardt

Lunge is very useful for engaging and disengaging the enemy and can help you reach locations that are farther away from you and help you get back into the fight faster in case you die.

Dragon Strike (Ultimate)

龍が我が敵を喰らう！
This ability will take a second to activate after using it and will cast a special type of arrow. It will create two spiraling dragons that will fly straight through the map in a direction of your crosshair.
These two dragons will pass through all solid surfaces and deal 150 damage per second overtime for any enemy that comes into contact with the dragons. Friendly dragons are blue and the enemy Hanzo has red dragons.

Dragon Strike Tips

This ultimate ability is mostly used to deny certain areas of the map to your team’s advantage. I like to use the ultimate a few moments after I use the Sonic Arrow in order to predict where the enemy is going to move and get a few kills. Even if you don’t get kills your team should push into them and fight while the dragon is denying a part of the map.

Dragon Strike is a very strong ability if combined with Graviton Surge from Zarya or Earthshatter from Reinhardt because the enemy team is immobile for a few seconds and that gives your dragons plenty of time to kill them.

An enemy Genji can deflect your Dragon Strike if he’s clever enough so a good way to avoid that is shooting it through a wall.

Focus on coordinating your ult with your team, such as Reinhardt’s Earthshatter or Widow’s ultimate

General Strategy Tips

Use your climb ability to get on high ground every time you have the chance because it’s harder for the enemy team to kill you and you have more opportunities to kill them if they try to contest you.

Try to press ‘’Tab’’ for game overview as much as you can if you’re playing with a Zarya to check if a Graviton Surge is coming up soon so that you can get ready to use your Dragon Strike without getting it cancelled or deflected. Remember that it’s possible to shoot it through a wall if you’re worried about your ultimate getting eaten or deflected.

Sonic arrow should always be used to scout for the enemy team. Try to hit it at a spot where you know the enemy team is going to be for around 10 seconds (a choke point). If possible try to hit the maintank with your sonic arrow so that it gets stuck on the enemy team tank.

If a Mccree is trying to close in the gap between you and get close to you always use your lunge to jump backwards to avoid getting stunned.

You should always rely on your Storm Bow foremost. Storm arrows are a precious and valuable ability so try not to waste it before a teamfight has started. It’s good to use it when flankers try to dive you or use your storm arrows to follow up on a kill if you happen to hit someone to low HP.

You should practise flicking targets when you are close range in custom lobbies and try to predict the movement of enemies that are far away from you because your arrow accuracy significantly drops the further away you shoot.

If enemy team picks Pharah to counter you, do not give up, you can still kill her. You should always go highground even without a Pharah on enemy team. But if no one on your team is playing hitscan then it’s your job to take care of her.
Stay high ground and wait for her to fly up in a straight motion and it should be easy to kill her.

Doomfists will most likely try to deal with you if you are wreaking havoc on the enemy team so when dealing against a Doomfist player it's very important that you know how to outplay him.

First of all be aware of your surroundings and try to stay close to walls because if Doomfist Rocket punches through the air he will want to use his Seismic Slam and land on you, but this is where your Lunge ability comes into place.

Once you hear Doomfist incoming you will want to do a very short climb on the wall to avoid the slam (as long as you're not touching the ground the second he lands you will not get stunned) and then Lunge to your team for safety, but keep in mind Doomfist can still uppercut you so you will want to do it fast or unpredictably so he doesn't realize that his Seismic Slam got denied by your play when you climbed the wall for a split second.

Strong Maps for Hanzo

In my opinion, Hanzo is playable on all maps, however, some maps are obviously better than others for him. Maps like King’s Row are great.
Maps that are wide and have a lot of space could get a bit more tricky because everyone is more spread out and usually flanking. So remember to adjust your gameplay on different maps. It’s wise to flank a bit with a Mercy pocket on some maps to be more effective. When performing Overwatch boosting orders, I usually invite a Mercy support to pocket me.

Hanzo Counter

Dive and flanker heroes are a threat. Hanzo lacks consistent escape or survival abilities. Enemy team can go Winston / D.Va and 2 other flanking DPS heroes to shut you down very easily as you would not have a lot of time to plan out any kind of strategy.
Barriers as well, especially with double barrier meta. It could get quite hard to kill tanks or destroy both shields before they regenerate again. So if you’re the only big damage dealer in the team think about flanking and getting kills behind or above the shield.
Hanzo is not consistent at long ranges but Widowmaker is, keep this in mind when dealing with a Widowmaker on the enemy team. She is a hitscan sniper meanwhile you are a projectile sniper. Practise movement prediction by doing a lot of 1v1’s with good Widowmaker players and you should start winning the duels most of the time.

Final thoughts

Hanzo is the best projectile hero with the highest burst damage per second abilities and is more useful with a Zarya on the team so that you can combo your ultimate with the Graviton Surge.
Playing him is not an easy task but if you practice enough you will surely get good and become a Grandmaster like I promised earlier.
If you are still struggling after practicing, I suggest you check out our Overwatch coaching section and book coaching lessons with me, or another coach that suits your needs. We’ve seen very positive results after only 5 hours of coaching lessons.
Now, I want to hear what do you think about Hanzo? Are you having good results with him? Let me know in the comments below and I’ll gladly discuss with you. :)
Good luck!

Boosting Factory isn’t endorsed or in any way affiliated with Activision Blizzard, Riot Games, Electronic Arts or Respawn Entertainment and doesn’t reflect the views or opinions of anyone officially involved in producing or managing Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, Overwatch, Call of Duty and League of Legends. All trademarks and logos belong to their respective owners. All submitted art content remains copyright of its original copyright holder.

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